Mark Pope, Cats Didn’t Let Adversity Impact Their Team Culture

Vicky Graff Photo

Kentucky coach Mark Pope had been trying to explain what happened in his team’s 78-65 Sweet Sixteen loss to Tennessee when point guard Lamont Butler asked the press conference moderator if he could speak again.

“I think it’s really cool we were able to set the culture for Pope’s first year. And people have to come in and the bar is going to be set high for the next people who come under Pope. It’s gonna be fun to watch for sure,” Butler said.

Kentucky finished the season 24-12 but that includes wins over Duke and Florida, two Final Four teams, along with two wins over the Vols. There was also a victory over Louisville.

“It was awesome. This is the most fun I’ve had playing basketball ever,” Otega Oweh, an Oklahoma transfer, said. “That just goes to coach Pope and the way he took this group under his wing. He’s a different kind of coach. He’s more like a teacher.”

He had to teach a lot of lessons he probably wasn’t anticipating. Backup point guard Kerr Kriisa went out with a season-ending foot injury in December. Jaxson Robinson, expected to be UK’s best player, missed 12 games with a wrist injury and had to finally call it quits before postseason play started. Butler miss nine games with an ankle injury and then a shoulder injury that forced him to wear a cumbersome shoulder brace during games. Andrew Carr only missed one game but was hampered by a back injury for almost a month.

“Every team, every year brings its ups and downs. We’ve had a roller coaster of a year, but it brought us together even closer, everything that’s went on this year,” Butler said.

Kentucky fans quickly developed a special relationship with this entirely new team led by Pope, the captain of UK’s 1996 national championship team. Oscar Combs, formed owner/publisher of The Cats’ Pause, noted that former UK coaches Adolph Rupp, Joe Hall, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith and John Calipari grew the love of UK basketball, Combs believed the “arrival of Mark Pope has given a new found appreciation” of how to energize UK fans by embracing the name Kentucky.

“Pope has taught each and every player on the UK roster the importance of understanding and respecting what UK basketball means to all Kentuckians, whether they be old or young, rich or poor, rural or urban, white or black, educated or uneducated. He just gets it,” Combs said.

Former Kentucky players who knew Pope quickly expressed their appreciation for what he did on social media after the season-ending loss.

“Congrats to my brother Mark Pope for a fun, and great year. Tough to lose in the tournament, but great to see Kentucky and the #SEC back again,” Wayne Turner, UK’s starting point guard on the 1998 national title team, posted on X.

“Thank you for a better season than we had the right to expect, boys. What you all did this year will be built on,” Cameron Mills, a member of UK’s 1996 and 1998 national title teams, posted.

WLEX-TV BBN Tonight co-host Maggie Davis said the UK locker room after the Tennessee loss was not like most locker rooms after a season-ending loss.

“I was struck by the perspective. Great appreciation for the opportunity, pride in the accomplishments, and gratitude toward each other, their coach and BBN. Disappointed, yes, but not defined by one game,” Davis said.

Koby Brea transferred from Dayton to Kentucky for his final season and admitted that “dreaming about playing for Kentucky was one thing but doing it changed my life forever” after that final loss. He thanked UK fans for giving him another place to call home.

“I feel like it’s definitely surpassed my expectations just being able to see what it’s really like to be a Wildcat and be embraced by the great fans and be part of something special. I feel like we did a lot of special things this year,” Brea said.

Pope never made excuses during the season. Instead, he viewed injuries/adversity as an opportunity for his players to grow.

 “Adversity is a gift. Adversity is a beautiful thing,” Pope said. “The death of me is going to be when I’m sitting on a beach somewhere just drinking a nonalcoholic beverage and have no adversity because then how are you growing? What are you becoming?

“I think we’re obsessed with becoming something, like how can we find a way to get better.”

Now that obsession turns to how can Pope find ways to make UK better in the 2025-26 season than it was in his first year.